Yiping Ni, Finance 0902
An Introduction to UK and US
Course Instructor: Jiang Xiying
2011.5.29

American Dream

At the very beginning of movie "The legend of 1900", several words --" He'd look up for a second. A quick glance out to sea and he'd see her. Then he'd just stand there rooted to the spot, his heart racing. And every time every damn time, I swear, he'd turn to us, towards the ship, towards everybody and scream. America!"-- was said to portray how exciting a man felt when he first saw America. It is the "American Dream", as we all know, that keeps attracting different people from different countries to chase their dreams in America. James Truslow Adams once defined the American Dream in 1931, " life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. The meaning of the American Dream, however, does not remain the same over the course of history. Nowadays the American Dream, despite its contribution to building a cohesive American experience, has been blamed for over-inflated expectations, because it has done nothing to improve the situation in which the working class is hard to get ahead. Therefore a issue has been raised: Do we still need American Dream? This issue over whether the American Dream is dead is complex and controversial, and different people may hold different views due to their distinct backgrounds. As far as I am concerned, I believe that the American Dream is as significant as it was before.

For many of us, the liberty is our first expression of the United States, along with prosperity, attracting numerous immigrants to it year after year. Prior to the 21th century, the American Dream, which means that the opportunity for people's children to grow up and receive a good education and career would be gained without artificial barriers, had created a brand new world for those, who used to be limited due to class, caste, religion, race, or ethnicity, and their offsprings. Historian James Truslow Adams popularized the phrase "American Dream" in his 1931 book Epic of America: It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.

Despite its foregoing contribution, the American Dream has been criticized by some commentators because the modern American wealth structure still perpetuates racial and class inequalities between generations. Heather Beth Johnson states that edge are not always connected to individual successes, but often to prior position in a social group. What's more, a research suggests that "the United States and Britain show less intergenerational income-based social mobility than the Nordic countries and Canada." The criticism reached its peak after the World WarⅡ. The Beat Generation wrote a good deal of literatures to represent their disappointment to the country, say Allen Ginsberg's 《howl》. Nevertheless, the blame toward American Dreams could be explained. It is partly because European governments, worried that their best young people would leave for America, distributed posters like this to frighten them, and also the war has lead low moral in the nation.

In the 21th century, the American Dream, although it has changed a lot and may not be as inspiring as before, maintains its popularity with several evidences. In 2006 Barack Obama, still a state senator, wrote a memoir--The Audacity of Hope--reclaiming the American Dream. It was this interpretation of the American Dream that helped establish his statewide and national reputations and finally become the president. Further more, several public opinion polls, which have been conducted by Hanson and Zogby since the 1980s to explore the meaning of the concept for Americans and their expectations for its future, reports that a majority of American consistently believes that the American Dream is more about spiritual happiness than material goods. Also majorities state that "working hard is the most important element for getting ahead." Therefore, we can comfortably say that the core spirit of American Dream has not greatly changed over the past decades and has been acknowledged by the civil.

Interestingly, Ownby has identified four new American Dreams according to the new consumer culture. They are the "Dream of Abundance", the "Dream of a Democracy of Goods", the "Dream of Freedom of Choice" and the "Dream of Novelty". The four new American Dreams focus mainly on consumers' freedom and equity of their access to products and particular life styles. Maybe the meaning of the American Dream remains the same, but we have to admit that new forms of the American Dream would emerge in large numbers in the following years. And this phenomenon would not push the American Dream to its funeral but activate it once again. To sum up, the American Dream has not yet died. Oppositely, the American Dream has rooted deeply in American heart: they born for it; work; and die. Due to all the above-mentioned factors, we are able to safely draw the conclusion that the American Dream has become a important part of the culture of the United States and is still making a big difference in modern days.